Police recover Ninoy’s wedding ring in Tarlac pawnshop

The gold wedding band of the late Sen. Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino Jr., stolen from the Aquino Center in Tarlac over the Holy Week, has been recovered by police in a pawnshop in Tarlac City, a spokesman for former President Corazon Aquino said yesterday.

The ring was pawned for P1,800.

"I am very happy that the ring, which carries great sentimental value to me, has been recovered," former Press Undersecretary Deedee Siytangco quoted Mrs. Aquino as saying. "I laud the Central Luzon police and the National Bureau of Investigation for its recovery."

But the former president also expressed sadness that the theft was carried out by a trusted security guard of the Aquino Center, located inside the Hacienda Luisita in San Miguel, Tarlac.

Siytangco said Central Luzon Police chief Senior Superintendent Reynaldo Berroya reported to Mrs. Aquino that the Aquino-Reagan commemorative gold coin, which was stolen along with the ring, has also been recovered. According to sketchy reports, it ended up with a Makati-based coin collector.

The coin marked the September 1986 official visit to the White House of Mrs. Aquino. It was on display at a different section of the museum.

Ninoy’s wedding ring, along with his eyeglasses, his leather boots and broken rosary, was turned over to his family when they claimed his body at the Fort Bonifacio Hospital morgue hours after he was assassinated on Aug. 21, 1983. The ring remained in his widow’s safekeeping until it was displayed in a glass-encased stand in the Aquino Center.

The Center, patterned after the John F. Kennedy Memorial Library and Museum in Boston, was inaugurated in September last year. It houses memorabilia of the late senator, whose assassination sparked a series of non-violent protests that led to the ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos in 1986. Mementos of Ninoy’s wife Corazon’s presidency are also displayed in the Aquino Center.